PRESIDENT BUSH: It is my honor
to welcome my friend back to the White House. It wasn't all
that long ago that we were standing out here for the opening ceremony
of the first and only state dinner I've had since I've been the
President. He came as a friend then, and he's come back as a
loyal friend to the United States.

September 11th really changed
America. President Fox understood that right off the
bat. One of the first calls I got was from Vicente
Fox. He called expressing his deep condolences to the
American people. He was very kind to me. He
wished me well. President Fox understands that an attack on
America affects Mexico in a significant way. After all,
there are millions of Mexican Americans and Mexican nationals living in
America; men and women who saw a land they love attacked; men and women
who have united around a great cause of defending freedom.

In this country we don't ask the question,
what is your religion or where are you from. We ask the
question, are you united to defend freedom. And there are millions of
Mexican Americans who understand that call. So when the
President said, we stand with you, he is not only saying, we stand with
the United States government, he's saying, we stand with millions of
people living in our country, as well.

President Fox and I had a great discussion
about ways we can continue to cooperate. We need to
cooperate on security matters along our border, which we
are. We need to continue working on other agenda items that
we have been working on, and we will.

Obviously, our nation is now focused on
the incidents of September 11th. But I assured him our
relationship will go forward, that we'll work on the issues that we had
discussed the last time we were here. I talked to my friend
about our economy. It has been affected significantly by the
actions of September the 11th. But I assured him that we
will take an aggressive role at the federal level to try to spur
economic growth, which is very important, since we've got a significant
amount of trade between our nations.

In sum, I'm so glad he came
back. It's comforting to know that our friend to the south
is going to be a friend in good times and in tough times.

So, Mr. President, welcome
back. Thank you for coming.

PRESIDENT FOX: Thank
you. And thank you, President, for the opportunity to be
back here again; the opportunity to express very clearly, loudly, our
sorrow, our solidarity with your government, with the American people,
with the victims and all those who suffered under these attacks. But
also, the opportunity to reaffirm our commitments.

We are a friend, we are neighbors, we are
partners, and we want to make very clear that this means commitment all
the way, and that we will keep our commitments. And we are
working on an everyday basis, either in the border, either in customs,
either in migration, either -- on each of the subjects that have to do
with security. We will be side by side in your efforts to
defeat terrorism in the world and wherever it is.

We will be coordinating, participating,
collaborating on our side with our resources that we have at
hand. And we know of your efforts not only to meet this
challenge, we know the efforts also to keep America moving. And that's
something that we very proudly see, that this nation does not know
about defeat; on the contrary. But it's working to come back
to be the leader, to be that strong spirit and economy that is an
example for all of us.

And we're working in the same
direction. We know that in economic terms, things are
interactive; as well, as we buy a lot of products, services from the
United States, we sell a lot of products to the United States, being
one of the largest trading two economies in the world. And
through working in that direction, we can also contribute to overcoming
this situation.

So, thanks again for giving us this
opportunity. And we go back knowing that we have a lot of
work to do, that we've been doing and that we will keep on
doing. So, thank you, President.